During the past two decades, the assessment of family variables has become a key component in an ever-expanding range of research programs concerned with alcohol abuse and alcoholism. Regardless of research objective, however, all such studies must ultimately select, revise or develop measurement procedures in order to operationalize key family constructs they wish to investigate. It is for this reason that clarifying the nature of family assessment and strengthening the psychometric and theoretical foundations of the field should be high priority goals in the field of alcohol studies. The major goal of the proposed investigation is to examine, clarify and expand the methods by which we attempt to know the family. In pursuit of this goal, two interrelated studies will be conducted: (1) within-method assessments involving an examination of relationships among carefully selected measures from the same method group, and (2) correspondence across methods, involving a rigorous and comprehensive assessment of cross-method relationships under "ideal" conditions that maximize the potential for congruence as well as under conditions that exemplify previous research.